Focus on God Alone

On this Monday in the first week of Lent, we hear from Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth:

 

Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you— so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you should be in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you should be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul’, or ‘I belong to Apollos’, or ‘I belong to Cephas’, or ‘I belong to Christ.’ Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.

 

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ (1 Cor. 1:1-19).

 

You and I are all one in Christ.  It is Jesus that we follow.  We do not follow the Pope, or the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Presiding Bishop of the United States, of Martin Luther, or John Wesley, or a particular pastor, or insert whatever name you’d like. Our focus is on God alone, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

 

Let us pray:  Almighty God, give us the strength this Lent to put our entire focus on you.  Let us remember what Jesus told us in yesterday’s Gospel reading: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”  Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

An excellent resource for your Daily Lenten Discipline is to pray the Daily Office (Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer).  As I said yesterday, I use my computer to do it.  Here is the website that has everything you need to pray the Daily Office of the Church (music, readings and all): http://www.missionstclare.com/english/

 

Wednesday at 6 PM, the 1^st in the Lenten Series Nick @ Night with Bishop Fisher at St. Augustine’s starting with Stations, Eucharist, light dinner and program.  Don’t miss it!

 

Seaside Seniors on Thursday, 20 March at 11 AM with a St. Patrick’s Day theme.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially Pat, Patricia and Evelyn.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

Mardi Gras

Today at St. Augustine starting at 6 PM, we will have our now annual Mardi Gras celebration. 

“Mardi Gras,” meaning “Fat Tuesday” in French, has its origins in Medieval Europe.  It is also known as “Carnival” in some places, which comes from the Latin “carne vale” (“good bye [vale] meat [carne]”). It is a kick-off to Lent where people get a “last hurrah,” if you will, before the penitential season of Lent begins tomorrow on Ash Wednesday.

 

There are certain traditions, for example, the wearing of masks. In the past, the wearing of masks allowed people to cross cultural barriers giving people anonymity thereby allowing people of different social classes to mix. 

 

Let us pray:  Gracious God, we pray that all of those who participate in Mardi Gras this evening will remember that you are the giver of all good things, and that in you is perfect freedom.  Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Today, Tuesday at 6 PM, Mardi Gras hosted by the Taylors.  Enjoy the DJ, dancing, the food and fellowship.

 

Ash Wednesday at 6 PM with imposition of ashes and Eucharist.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

John & Charles Wesley: Evangelists

Today the Episcopal Church remembers the life and ministry of 2 Anglican priests, John and Charles Wesley, evangelists. Now you might be saying to yourself, “But they were Methodists!”  I’ll try to make a long story short.

 

John was born in 1703 and Charles in 1707.  They came from a pretty religious family.  Their father, Samuel, was a priest, and their mother, Susanna, was the daughter of a minister. They both went to Oxford.  While at school, there got together with a few friends and undertook a strict adherence to the worship and discipline of the Book of Common Prayer, so they got the nickname, “the Methodists.”  After university, they were ordained as Anglican priests. John went off to the mission fields of Georgia in 1735, and Charles went as well, but as secretary of the governor of the colony.

 

Putting it mildly, John Wesley’s time in the Colonies was anything but pleasant.  On his way over, John met Sophia Hopkey, and they eventually began dating. John broke off the relationship on the advice of another minister. Hopkey said that John had promised to marry her, and that he had broken his promise. John’s problems came to a head when he refused Hopkey communion. (Bad choice). She and her new husband, William Williamson, filed suit against Wesley.  The case went to court and ended in a mistrial, but the damage was done.  John left Georgia depressed.

 

On his return to England, John met up with the Moravians, a group of Christians he met on his way to Georgia.  He began attending their prayer meetings, and during one of those meetings the following happened:

 

In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

 

After that, John began preaching in the fields saying that “the whole world is my parish!”  Charles joined him and became one the most prolific hymn writers in history.  He produced 56 volumes of hymns in 53 years, producing in his lyrics what brother John called a “distinct and full account of scriptural Christianity.” “Charles Wesley,” Christianity Today : Christian History (2008).

 

The Methodists became known (and sometimes mocked) for their exuberant singing of Charles’s hymns. A contemporary observer recorded, “The song of the Methodists is the most beautiful I ever heard … They sing in a proper way, with devotion, serene mind and charm.” Id.

 

Charles Wesley quickly earned admiration for his ability to capture universal Christian experience in memorable verse. In the following century, Henry Ward Beecher declared, “I would rather have written that hymn of Wesley’s, ‘Jesus, Lover of My Soul,’ than to have the fame of all the kings that ever sat on the earth.” The compiler of the massive Dictionary of Hymnology, John Julian, concluded that “perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, [Charles Wesley was] the greatest hymn-writer of all ages.” Id.

 

Let us pray:  Lord God, who inspired your servants John and Charles Wesley with burning zeal for the sanctification of souls, and endowed them with eloquence in speech and song: Kindle in your Church, we entreat you, such fervor, that those whose faith has cooled may be warmed, and those who have not known Christ may turn to him and be saved; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Tomorrow, Tuesday at 6 PM, Mardi Gras hosted by the Taylors.  Enjoy the DJ, dancing, the food and fellowship.

 

Ash Wednesday at 6 PM with imposition of ashes and Eucharist.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

George Herbert: Poet & Priest

Today the Episcopal Church remembers the life and ministry of a poet and priest, George Herbert who was born in 1593 and died on this day in 1633. James Kiefer writes:  

 

George attended Trinity College, Cambridge, and became the Public Orator of the University, responsible for giving speeches of welcome in Latin to famous visitors, and writing letters of thanks, also in Latin, to acknowledge gifts of books for the University Library. This brought him to the attention of King James I, who granted him an annual allowance, and seemed likely to make him an ambassador. However, in 1625 the king died, and George Herbert, who had originally gone to college with the intention of becoming a priest, but had his head turned by the prospect of a career at Court, determined anew to seek ordination. In 1626 he was ordained, and became vicar and then rector of the parish of Bemerton and neighboring Fugglestone, not far from Salisbury.

 

He served faithfully as a parish priest, diligently visiting his parishioners and bringing them the sacraments when they were ill, and food and clothing when they were in want. He read Morning and Evening Prayer daily in the church, encouraging the congregation to join him when possible, and ringing the church bell before each service so that those who could not come might hear it and pause in their work to join their prayers with his. He used to go once a week to Salisbury to hear Evening Prayer sung there in the cathedral. On one occasion he was late because he had met a man whose horse had fallen with a heavy load, and he stopped, took off his coat, and helped the man to unload the cart, get the horse back on its feet, and then reload the cart. His spontaneous generosity and good will won him the affection of his parishioners.

 

Today, however, he is remembered chiefly for his book of poems, The Temple, which he sent shortly before his death to his friend Nicholas Ferrar, to publish if he thought them suitable.  They were published after Herbert's death, and have influenced the style of other poets, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  Several of them have been used as hymns, in particular "Teach me, my God and King," and "Let all the world in every corner sing."

 

Let us pray:  Our God and King, who called your servant George Herbert from the pursuit of worldly honors to be a pastor of souls, a poet, and a priest in your temple: Give us grace, we pray, joyfully to perform the tasks you give us to do, knowing that nothing is menial or common that is done for your sake; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Mardi Gras celebration hosted by Tammie and Bill Taylor, Tuesday, 4 March at 6 p.m. in Sutton Hall at St. Augustine’s.

 

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, 5 March at 6 p.m. with the Imposition of Ashes and Eucharist.

 

Lenten Program on the Island: “Nick at Night”:

 

Mar. 12th: The Rt. Rev. Jeff Fisher Bishop Suffragan, Diocese of Texas at St. Augustine (1410 41st St.)

 

Mar. 19th: The Rev. Wendy Wilkinson, Rector, Good Samaritan Episcopal Church, Virginia Beach, VA at Grace (1115 36th St.)

 

Mar. 26th: The Rev. Canon Glenice Robinson-Como Canon Pastor at Christ Church Cathedral & Chaplain to the Beacon at Trinity (2216 Ball Ave)

 

Apr. 2nd: Br. Michael Gallagher & Fr. Peter Funk Benedictine Monks and Founders of Holy Cross Monastery at St. Augustine (1410 41st St.)

 

Apr. 9th: The Very Rev. Cynthia Briggs Kittredge, Dean & President of the Seminary of the Southwest, Austin at Grace (1115 36th St.)

 

Apr. 16th: The Rev. Mike Chalk, Diocese of West Texas at Trinity (2216 Ball Ave).

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially Patricia, Pat and Karen.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

Fr. John Roberts: Missionary to the Shoshone and Arapahos

Today the Episcopal Church remembers the life and ministry of John Roberts, a priest and missionary who was born in 1853 and died in 1949.  John Roberts was born in Dyserth, on the coast of North Wales. Roberts went to St David’s College, Lampeter, then affiliated with Oxford University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1876.  Roberts was ordained a deacon in 1878 at Lichfield Cathedral by the Rt. Rev. George Augustus Selwyn, and he was ordained priest by the Rt. Rev. Francis Cramer Roberts at Nassau. He served as chaplain of St. Matthew’s Cathedral, and he also ministered to the leper colonies. In 1880 he set out for New York and applied for his first preference of priestly work: ministering to the Native Americans of the United States. 

 

The University of Wyoming has this to say about Fr. Roberts: 

 

Assigned to minister to the Shoshone and Arapahos on the Wind River Reservation, he set about his work by learning all he could about Native American customs and beliefs, believing that by knowing the people he hoped to minister to he would be more effective. He also learned the native languages, eventually translating the gospel for his Native American congregates.

 

Roberts often said the object of his work among the Indians was to make them self supporting. With this in mind he established two schools, the Indian Boarding School at Ft. Washakie and the Shoshone Indian Mission Boarding School. Roberts cultivated friendships with tribal leaders, including Chief Black Coal and Chief Washakie, whom he later baptized. He earned the trust of the tribal leadership and was often involved in their negotiations with the agents of the federal government. The Indians rewarded Roberts for his fairness in dealing with them by giving him the name “Elder Brother.”

 

Roberts also ministered to the non-natives of the state, establishing Episcopal churches in towns across Wyoming. Roberts retired from active missionary work in 1921 but continued to live on the reservation until his death in 1949 at the age of ninety-seven.

 

Let us pray:  Creator God, we thank you for bringing your missionary John Roberts from his native land to live and teach your Gospel in a spirit of respect and amity among the Shoshone and Arapahoe peoples in their own language; and we pray that we also may share the Good News of your Christ with all we meet as friends brought together by your Holy Spirit; for you are one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, living and true, to the ages of ages. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Mardi Gras celebration hosted by Tammie and Bill Taylor, Tuesday, 4 March at 6 p.m. in Sutton Hall at St. Augustine’s.

 

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, 5 March at 6 p.m. with the Imposition of Ashes and Eucharist.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially Patricia, Pat and Karen.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

John Henry Newman

 

Today the Episcopal Church remembers the life and ministry of an Anglican priest who became a Roman Catholic priest later in life and was named a Cardinal, John Henry Newman, who was born in 1801 and died in 1890.

 

Newman was part of the Oxford Movement wherein certain Anglican clergymen (Edward Bouverie Pusey, John Keble, Charles Marriott, Richard Hurrell Froude, Robert Wilberforce, Isaac Williams and William Palmer) at the University of Oxford desired the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy and theology. They conceived of the Anglican Church as one of three branches of the Catholic Church (Roman, Orthodox and Anglican).  The movement eventually spread to the United States.

 

Let us pray:  God of all wisdom, we thank you for John Henry Newman, whose eloquence bore witness that your Church is one, holy, catholic and apostolic, and who made his own life a pilgrimage towards your truth. Grant that, inspired by his words and example, we may ever follow your kindly light till we rest in your bosom, with your dear Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, where heart speaks to heart eternally; for you live and reign, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Saturday, 22 February, at 11 am at St. James in Houston: Absalom Jones Day.

 

Sunday, 23 February, at the 9 am Eucharist, we will baptize 2 of Samuel Daniel’s children.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially Pat, Patricia and Karen.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550

Martin Luther: Reformer

Today the Episcopal Church remembers a Reformer, Martin Luther.  Recently while I was visiting with Roman Catholic friends from Ireland, they said: “I read what Martin Luther advocated at the time of the Reformation, and he was right, and now the Roman Catholic Church agrees with what he said and made many of the changes he advocated were passed during Vatican II in the 1960s, but the Roman Catholic Church excommunicated him then.  How could the Roman Catholic Church have been right at the time?”  My answer: sometimes institutions, and those who have a vested interest in them, let things like power, wealth, “it’s the way we’ve always done it” attitude; blind our eyes to the need for change and renewal.  Martin Luther recognized that the Church is always in need or reformation.  He had the courage to step out and to engage the powers that be to work for renewal and reformation.  So today we remember that Augustinian monk who was born in 1483 and died in 1546, who taught theology at a new university in Germany, Wittenberg, who translated Holy Scripture into the language of his people and did the same with the liturgies of the Church, and we give thanks to God for those who have the courage to challenge the greater Church to renewal and reformation.

 

Let us pray:  O God, our refuge and our strength, who raised up your servant Martin Luther to reform and renew your Church in the light of your word: Defend and purify the Church in our own day and grant that, through faith, we may boldly proclaim the riches of your grace, which you have made known in Jesus Christ our Savior, who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Thursday, 20 February 2014: the Seaside Seniors meet at Sutton Hall at St. Augustine’s at 11 A.M. to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day.

 

Join the Absalom Jones Eucharistic Celebration: Come Saturday, 22 February at 11 A.M. to St. James', Houston, and meet the seven diocesan Black clergy and enjoy the musical talents of St. James’ Young Dancers and The Jazz Ensemble.  Enjoy a great lunch and a lively panel discussion on "Fifty Years Later: The State of Racism in America." St. James is located at 3129 Southmore Blvd. in Houston.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially Pat, Patricia, Karen and Xavier and the Daniel’s children to be baptized this Sunday.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550